It is located two miles (3.2 km) south-west of Manchester city centre in the historic county of Lancashire.

[3] In the 1820s, Manchester scientist John Dalton chose Old Trafford as the site for a Royal Horticultural and Botanical Gardens because of its clean, unpolluted air, and so began the area's association with sports and recreation.

The popularity of the botanical gardens, which was similar to The Crystal Palace, led wealthy people to build large houses in the area.

Employment was also provided on a smaller scale, notably by the railways (Trafford Park shed alone had over 300 staff), Duerr's Jams, Vimto, Arkady Soya Mill[4] and Ludwig Oppenheimer Mosaics.

However, after the perceived failure of the deck-access concrete crescents of Hulme, Old Trafford's residents preferred renovation to demolition.

By 1985, employment at Trafford Park had fallen to 24,500, as unemployment in the northwest soared above 30 per cent in some inner-city areas.

In 1974, as a result of the Local Government Act 1972, it became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford in Greater Manchester.

[8] At the subsequent public enquiry in November 2005, Beverley Hughes opposed the change, as well as an alternative proposal to create a constituency of Salford and Old Trafford.

At the crossroads of Brooks's Bar, the boundaries between Old Trafford and Hulme and Moss Side and Whalley Range meet.

Old Trafford is among the 10% most deprived areas in England, suffering problems of unemployment, poor housing and low educational achievement.

Ayres Road and its environs are the heart of modern-day Old Trafford and a walk down this road gives a real flavour of the multi-cultural nature of the neighbourhood, with its variety of grocers' shops selling food stuffs from Europe, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia; its Catholic church, St. Alphonsus, frequented by a predominantly Irish congregation, the vibrant and busy St John's Community Centre and Shizhan House, the Chinese Medicine Centre, on the site of the old Vimto offices.

Since the 1980s Old Trafford has become home to two large South Asian communities – Punjabi Pakistanis  – almost all being Muslim.

Muslims represent the largest non-Christian religious group in the area, with 28% of the population, compared to 3% in the whole of Trafford.

For many years the numerous Polish community had a focal point in their ex-servicemen's club on Shrewsbury Street, now no longer there.

The move to West Didsbury in 1909 was prompted by the industrialisation of Trafford Park and consequent air pollution.

[15] Famous people who were born or lived in the area include political and social activist Sylvia Pankhurst, singer Ian Curtis of Joy Division and his wife, the author Deborah Curtis, artist L. S. Lowry, aviator John Alcock,[16] Dodie Smith, the author of 101 Dalmatians.

[17] Old Trafford also produced two Victoria Cross winners in the First World War: Charles Coverdale, a sergeant in the Manchester Regiment, and James Marshall, an officer in the Lancashire Fusiliers.

Rebecca Long-Bailey, MP for Salford and Eccles and Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury was born in Trafford.